Sarawak Assembly Can Add State Not Parliamentary Seats Says Karim

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 PBB information chief says this was done in 1985, 1995, 2005 and 2015.
PBB information chief Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah said the Sarawak legislative assembly is the highest law-making body in the state. (Bernama pic)PETALING JAYA: The Sarawak government is capable of increasing the number of state constituencies in the state through the legislative assembly, but not parliamentary seats, says a leader of the ruling party
Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah said the state government had in 1985, 1995, 2005 and 2015 tabled bills to pave the way for more state seats to be added, bringing the total to 82 currently.
“Being the highest law-making body in the state, surely it has the power to increase the number of state seats..
“This is, of course,subject to Article 113 of the Federal Constitution, which states that any review of the electoral boundaries can only be done eight years after the completion of the previous exercise.
“However, I don’t think the state assembly is empowered to review, increase or decrease the number of parliamentary seats in Sarawak,” ,” the Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu information chief told FMT.
Nonetheless, he said, he remained in the dark as to the agenda for the special state assembly sitting on July 7 called by Sarawak premier Abang Johari Openg.
He said he had yet to see the notice for the special sitting as well as the bills the state government intends to table.
There was previously speculation that the special Sarawak assembly sitting on July 7 would see the tabling of a bill to increase the number of parliamentary seats to 46 and state seats to 99.
Besides the 82 state seats, Sarawak has 31 parliamentary seats.
However, state assembly speaker Asfia Awang Nassar said changes to the number of parliamentary and state seats in Sarawak fell under the purview of the Election Commission, not the state assembly.
Asfia did not dismiss the possibility that the redelineation of parliamentary and state seats could be brought up at the special sitting, but maintained that any execution of this would come under the EC’s jurisdiction.
The last redelineation exercise in Sarawak was conducted in 2015, before the 2016 state polls, and led to 11 seats being added to the state assembly. -FMT

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